Planning Clinical & Health Research

Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Provide a rationale for a research study, supported with relevant evidence, policy and practice experience
• Critically appraise the needs of funders and/or consumers of research in relation to planning a research project.
• Justify the design and methods chosen for the research study, through critical analysis of the methods process, synthesis of existing evidence-base, ethical considerations, and other research protocols as appropriate
• Critically evaluate the regulatory and practice context as well as potential risk of your chosen research study and its impact on development of the study proposal

For this module, you will need to identify a research question that you wish to develop into a proposal. The proposal could be to carry out research in a practice setting, apply for research funding or a personal award (e.g. doctoral training) or a project required for your programme of study (empirical dissertation).

Learning group activities will be led by student needs. Indicative content for the group discussions might include further exploration of:

• Evaluation of the context for the chosen research study, particularly in relation to recruitment, governance, ethics
• Negotiation of an appropriate output
• Content of the research proposal
• Understanding the needs of research funders
• Ethics, research governance and data protection protocols
• Involving patients and members of the public in your research plans
• Team-building and networking
• Budgeting and resources.
• Writing for different audiences

Teaching and learning methods

Negotiated lecture content, self-directed learning, negotiation with research supervisor, learning groups, seminars

Learning group sessions will be the focus of this module. The learning group will enable you to reflect on and consolidate learning. For those students undertaking this module as part of pre-doctoral, Master’s or Doctoral studies, you will be expected to work closely with your supervisor and/or research team throughout this module.

You will be required to:

• Self manage and regulate your activities effectively so that you meet the aims and learning outcomes on time and in an appropriate manner;
• Reflect on and evaluate the process of developing your research idea in a systematic and critical way;
• Use feedback from colleagues and academic advisors constructively;
• Take responsibility for collecting evidence to demonstrate learning and understanding;
• Sustain your commitment to devising and carrying out an agreed research planning task .

Assessment strategy

The formative assessment will comprise a short written summary of your research proposal. The summary should be 600 words +/-10%.

You will receive brief written feedback via e-mail on their assignment plan/extract from the module leader, in line with the policy on reading drafts.

The summative assessment will comprise a research proposal of 3,500 words +/-10%.

You must achieve a minimum mark of 50% to complete this module successfully.

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Summary

• Assessment Type: Formative
• Feedback: By e-mail, from module leader
• Final Assessment: No
• Group Work: No

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External